Compulsory alcohol rehabilitation bill attacked

Anyone who leaves a treatment facility without permission will face up to three months in jail, and people who supply alcohol to those in rehab could incur a one-month jail term.

ABC TV

A Top End justice organisation says the Northern Territory Government's new mandatory alcohol rehabilitation legislation is draconian.

A draft bill outlining how the legislation will force problem drinkers into treatment was unveiled today.

Under the proposed law, people taken into protective custody three times in two months will require mandatory rehabilitation.

Anyone who leaves a treatment facility without permission will face up to three months in jail.

People who supply alcohol to those in rehab could incur a one-month jail term.

Jonathan Hunyor of the the North Australian Aboriginal Justice Agency (NAAJA) says some people may be held unnecessarily beyond an initial 72-hour assessment period outlined in the bill.

"That can be extended by a further 72 hours, if that is required, and then it can take up to seven days for the tribunal to consider someone's case," he said.

"That leaves us with 13 days before someone actually gets to possibly argue their case as to why they shouldn't be put on a treatment order at all, and why they should be allowed to go free."

The Northern Territory Criminal Lawyers Association says it is disgraceful that the draft bill has only been released to the public a day before it is introduced to parliament.

Association spokesman Russell Goldflam says an alarming part of the draft bill is a clause which provides that people being detained on a mandatory treatment order have to pay for their own food and medication.

"I don't think there is anywhere else in Australia; I don't think there are any regimes like this anywhere else in the English-speaking world, which require people who are detained against their will to pay for the cost of staying alive," he said.

The Government plans to treat up to 500 problem drinkers a year.

With a budget allocation of $45 million to set up and run the mandatory scheme for a year, that's an average spend of $90,000 per problem drinker.